Last night’s TLC pay per view had serious repercussions for Monday Night going forwards. We could start with the Miz cashing in the Money in the Bank contract and failing to win the WWE title. Or we could talk about the return of Charlotte Flair and her winning the Women’s Tag Team titles with Asuka. Oh, the Hurt Business beat the New Day for the RAW tag team belts. No. Let’s talk about Randy Orton burning the Fiend alive in the middle of the ring. If you missed it, Randy Orton gave the Fiend a discount cremation in the ThunderDome.

The Queen, Charlotte Flair, kicks off the show, heading to the ring with her new title belt. Her friend, Asuka, asked her for help and she obliged. There was something in it for her, after all. The RAW women’s champ joins Flair in the ring, touting her double championships.

The former tag team champs, Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler, interrupt as Charlotte asks about the RAW title. Shayna is ready to hand out some seasons beatings, when Mandy Rose and Dana Brooke walk out on stage.

Mandy points out that Nia and Shayna look a little different tonight. They aren’t the tag team champions, so they need to move over. This gives Flair an idea. She asks for a ref and wants to watch these two teams fight it out.


Mandy Rose and Dana Brooke vs. Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler


The champs join commentary. Jax crushes Dana in the corner and takes her down with a head butt. Dana dodges a splash in the corner and hits the hand spring back elbow. Jax is taken down with a flying head scissors and Mandy gets the tag. She knocks Shayna off the apron. Those pose on the apron, before taking out Jax and Baszler on the floor.  Nia catches Mandy re-entering the ring and slams her into the security barricade.

After a commercial break, Rose is in trouble in the ring. Baszler slams her knee into the mat and then works over her leg and hits a DDT. Mandy fires off shots on Jax, only to get blasted with a clothesline. Baszler gets the tag, running across the ring to take out Brooke on the apron. Mandy with a back elbow and pounds on Shayna in the corner. Rose with a knee strike and Brooke tags in with a round off splash. Shayna kicks out. Brooke hits a senton and covers. Jax pulls her of Shayna and out of the ring. Mandy and Dana take out Jax on the floor.

Baszler nails Brooke with a back breaker and sets her up for the elbow stomp. Dana avoids it, but Shayna is able to lock in the Kirifuda Clutch. Dana taps out.

Winners via submission: Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax


After the match, Jax and Baszler jaw with the tag team champs, only to get dumped out of the ring by Rose and Brooke.

Backstage, the Hurt Business gives the business to some poor guy wearing a New Day shirt. Lashley rips it off him as Shelton forces a Hurt Business shirt on him.


The V*I*P Lounge


The lounge is now for champions, like the United States champion Bobby Lashley or the RAW tag team champions Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander. The time of pancakes and unicorns is over. Now is the time for suits and champagne. Lashley claims that no one can beat him for his title. MVP has set up a photo shoot. R Truth photobombs the shoot, but gets chased out by the superstars looking to win the 24/7 title.

The Hardy Bros crash the celebration. Riddle congratulates them on the big win, but wants to know why they are spending so much money at the club. They should be chilling with the homies. He wants them to chill out. MVP doesn’t know what he is talking about and wants to know why they are here. Hardy says they are fighting for their faith tonight.

Sarah Schreiber asks Angel Garza how he prepared to face Drew Gulak, but he would rather give her a rose.


Drew Gulak vs. Angel Garza


Garza rips off his tear away pants, tossing them in Gulak’s face. Garza with a knee strike in the corner. Gulak reverses an abdominal stretch, but Garza breaks free. Garza with a superkick, setting up the Wing Clipper. He connects and covers Gulak to get the pin.

Winner via pinfall: Angel Garza


Charly Caruso gets AJ Styles thoughts on the Miz cashing in the Money in the Bank contract. AJ isn’t pleased and he is going on Miz TV so he can get an explanation.


Miz TV


Miz acknowledges that he failed last night and apologizes to his family. Morrison says this isn’t the only apology and they introduce AJ Styles. AJ tells Omos to back down and let Miz speak. Styles shuts him down fast, calling him an idiot. They both lost because of the cash in. Miz knows this. He knows what he did because he had cashed in before and won. He wanted the respect that came with being WWE champion. From the bottom of his heart, the Miz apologizes to AJ. He knows he blew it. Miz wants to make it right and offers him a role in the next Marine movie. Omos calls out Morrison for being the one to cash in the contract. AJ and Morrison go at each other. Miz puts a stop to it, realizing that he never cashed it in. Morrison did. Miz wants the Money in the Bank contract back. Instead, he gets Drew McIntyre.

The WWE champ wants to stop fighting, so he can beat them up later tonight. McIntyre regales them with a holiday story with some help from Sheamus and Keith Lee. Drew forgets how the story ends, so they just attack. Styles dropkicks Lee into Sheamus and Drew has to pull the two of them apart.

Sheamus and Keith Lee are arguing backstage and McIntyre has to break them up again and he is not happy about it. He tells Sheamus to take a walk to calm down. He then tries to talk down Lee and wants him to imagine the damage all three of them can do together.


Ricochet vs. T-Bar w/RETRIBUTION


Ricochet goes after T-Bar at the bell, taking him down to a knee. T-Bar catches a cross body block and tosses Ricochet across the ring. Ricochet tries to get to his feet and dumps T-Bar to the floor. Ricochet takes out Slapjack and Mace, only to get booted in the back of the head by T-Bar. Ali tells Ricochet he belong with RETRIBUTION. Ricochet decks Ali. T-Bar pulls Ricochet away and hits him with a knee strike. He covers and gets the win.

Winner via pinfall: T-Bar


After the match, T-Bar tells Ricochet they are not the enemy, but then tells him to join or die.

The New Day knows they will be back on the top of the mountain. They have been there before and know how to get back.


MVP and Bobby Lashley vs. Jeff Hardy and Riddle


Hardy attacks MVP and Lashley at the bell, pushing him into the corner. Riddle tags in, looking for a sleeper on Lashley, but US champ shrugs him off. Riddle kicks Lashley in to the corner has Hardy tags in. Hardy with an inverted atomic drop and a kick to the face. Lashley powers out of the pin. Riddle tags in to team up for Bro-etry in Motion. Lashley hits the floor. MVP gets hit with a leg drop and a floating bro. Riddle and Hardy own the ring heading into a commercial.

After the break, Hardy is down on the floor. He rolls into the ring to beat the count. Lashley stops him from making a tag. MVP comes in with a kick to the face. MVP hits the Ballin’ Elbow and covers. Hardy kicks out. MVP misses a kick; Hardy hits a Whisper in the Wind. Riddle gets the tag, connecting with strikes to MVP. Riddle chases Cedric off the apron and hits a senton on MVP. Lashley breaks up the pin after a fisherman’s suplex. MVP tags out and Lashley lays out Riddle with a flatliner. Riddle drops out of the stalling suplex. Hardy makes a blind tag as Riddle connects with a pump kick. Riddle takes out the tag team champs as Hardy goes up top. MVP slows him down enough so Lashley could roll out of the way. Hardy looks for a Twist of Fate, but Lashley counters into the Hurt Lock. Hardy taps out.

Winners via submission: Bobby Lashley and MVP


Elias is with Jackson Ryker to try to put on another concert. Elias first talks about his wild 2020 and thanking the fans that bought his album. His music changes lives, apparently. Ryker has been reborn in the universal truth. Ryker is going to send a message tonight.


Gran Metalik w/Lince Dorado vs. Jackson Ryker w/Elias


Elias takes a seat top the turnbuckle as the match starts. Ryker is dropped into the corner and Gran Metalik knocks Elias off the top. Ryker takes advantage of the distracted Metalik and hits him with the sit down choke bomb. He covers to get the win.

Winner via pinfall: Jackson Ryker


Randy Orton makes his way to the ring to address his actions at TLC. He has no regrets for setting the Fiend on fire, because the Fiend is no man. Orton enjoyed every second of his work. Orton kneels on the spot where the deed happened. He can still smell it. The voices in Randy’s head are gone now, replaced by the sound of the Fiend gasping for his last breath. Orton claims the Fiend is no more, as he took him out. The lights start to shut down in the ThunderDome. A single spot light comes up and Alexa Bliss is in the ring on a swing set. She wants Orton to play. She doesn’t know where he is, but she has jokes. She says the Fiend has gone home, back into the earth. If he does came back it will be like nothing we have seen before. The lights go out again.

Tom Phillips and company try to move on from what we just saw.

Sarah Schreiber wants to know if Peyton Royce and Lacey Evans are up to the challenge of face the new champs. Evans requested the match. They want to show everyone what they can do. Peyton clarifies that she made the challenge.


Asuka and Charlotte Flair vs. Peyton Royce and Lacey Evans – Non Title Match


Can we talk about how WWE broke up the IIconics only to immediately thrown Peyton into a mismatched tag team? Evans gets tossed into Royce, as the former champs look on in the back. Evans and Peyton try to get on the same page, but this allows Asuka to get the tag during the argument. Flair with a backbreaker and a big boot to Royce. Lacey tries to stop the figure four, but Charlotte tosses her from the ring. Evans locks in a single leg crab as Evans tries to take out Asuka. A kick to the head from Asuka break Royce’s hold. Flair takes Royce down, locking in the figure four. She bridges into the Figure Eight and Royce taps.

Winners via submission: Charlotte Flair and Asuka


Backstage, Miz is on the phone trying to get back his Money in the Bank contract. He has to hang up when AJ Styles rolls up. Well, AJ hangs up for him.


Drew McIntyre, Sheamus and Keith Lee vs. The Miz, John Morrison and AJ Styles w/Omos – Six Man Holiday Street Fight Tag Team Match


There are perfectly good cookies at ringside that are going to be sacrificed in this match. Morrison and Sheamus start things off, trading blows. Morrison makes a tag while in a leg grapevine. Miz with a kick the head as Morrison nails Sheamus with a cheap shot. Morrison is dragged into the corner, where McIntyre stomps on him. Morrison kicks Drew in left knee, sending the champ to the mat. He keeps the pressure on with a dragon screw. McIntyre answers with a Glasgow kiss head butt.

Lee tags in and suplex Morrison with McIntyre. Sheamus teams up with Lee to take down all three opponents. The two congratulate each other on the team work, but the slaps start getting a little rough. Drew has to put a stop to it heading into a commercial break.

After the break, Sheamus and McIntyre beat on Morrison and Miz on the apron. They toss the two to Lee, who drives them into the apron. Lee tosses both men into a pile of presents. In the ring, Sheamus gives Styles a face full of his knee. Styles dodges a spear in the corner and Sheamus crashes into the ring post.

Morrison catches Sheamus on the top turnbuckle, sending him through a cookie table at ringside. Morrison rolls him back into the ring. Miz rakes Sheamus across the face and stops him from power to his corner. Miz hits a DDT. Sheamus kicks out. AJ Styles tags in, taking out Lee with a cheap shot. Sheamus hits White Noise and is able to tag in McIntyre. The champ tosses Miz and Morrison across the ring and then slams Morrison onto Miz. Drew looks for the DDT, but Miz kicks him in the knee. The champ with a spine buster, but Morrison breaks the pin. Lee pounces on Styles, sending him flying. Sheamus with an Irish Curse back breaker to Morrison, after he kicked Lee out of the ring. McIntyre sends Miz over the top rope.

Styles attacks McIntyre with kendo stick and they fight to the floor. Drew knocks AJ into a tree and then slams him through the egg nog table. Sheamus takes out Morrison with a kendo stick on the floor. McIntyre looks for the Claymore kick, but Sheamus tags himself in. So Keith Lee follows suit. He knocks Morrison off the apron, but Omos catches him. Morrison is relieved, until Omos puts him through a table. Keith Lee hits the spirit bomb on Miz and covers to get the win.

Winner via pinfall: Keith Lee, Drew McIntyre and Sheamus


After the match, the celebration is cut short as Sheamus Brogue kicks Keith Lee. McIntyre is not pleased as the show goes off the air. Merry Christmas and happy holidays everyone. See you in a week in the ThunderDome.

 

Monday Night RAW 12/21/2020
3

The ThunderDome at Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg, Florida

RAW had a lot to build on coming out of TLC. The show did a good job, opening with the returning Charlotte Flair. The Fiend was no where to be found, but his presence hung in the ThunderDome as Alexa Bliss stood in for him. And with Christmas on Friday there had to be a holiday themed match. The holiday street fight was a cluster, but it did serve a purpose as Sheamus attack Keith Lee after the match.